Repeated crises reaffirm role of PSU oil firms

New Delhi: Every time India has faced a major crisis - whether devastating floods, a once-in-a-century pandemic or the latest conflict in West Asia that threatened global oil supplies - it has been the country's state-run oil companies that have quietly kept fuel flowing.For decades, India's public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) have often been criticised for low returns, government intervention in fuel pricing and bloated operations.

They have twice been put on the block for privatisation, with plans to sell Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) gathering momentum in 2002 before being halted by a Supreme Court ruling and again in 2020, before the process was abandoned after failing to attract enough bids.Yet every national emergency has reinforced why governments have been reluctant to loosen their grip on companies that control the country's energy lifeline, analysts and industry officials said.

When unprecedented floods submerged Chennai in 2015, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), BPCL and HPCL scrambled to move fuel through alternative routes, restore inundated depots and keep emergency services supplied even as roads disappeared under water and retail outlets shut.During the Covid-19 pandemic, the companies operated virtually uninterrupted despite nationwide lockdowns.

Fuel stations remained open, refineries continued operating with skeletal staff, LPG cylinders were delivered to millions of households under strict mobility restrictions and aviation fuel supplies were maintained for relief and medical flights, they said. ...